Conclusion

Having completed the feedback from Assignment 5, it is time to review the module. I set out my reflections as What went well,  What could have gone better, and Achievements.

What went well

• Completed course in nine months. That is about the OCA average, and given the other distractions - New York marathon training in particular - and my increase in working hours to 4 days pw, completion in this time period is good. I had a need to maintain momentum doing this course and just about managed this;

• I now understand context in photography far better. The reading helped, and the exercises and assignments cemented my comprehension. Tutor has made some encouraging comments;

• When I started OCA, my main objectives was to move beyond the technical and explore some creativity. I have been bolder in my choice of subject matter for assignments than during TAOP (partly a reflection of a broader brief) and have enjoyed doing the assignments;

• Have met other OCA students;

•  Tutor has been supportive and has noted development in my work.

What could have gone better

• Notwithstanding that completed in reasonable time, I have found it difficult to devote as many hours to People and Place as would have liked. Reading and reviewing has been rather limited as have concentrated on exercises and assignments;

• The lack of face to face contact with tutor that is inherent in OCA. Emails do not work always and I have found the lack of oral engagement has been frustrating on occasion. I mention in feedbacks on Assignments 4 & 5 that tutor has misread or missed important points in the Assignment. Ideally, it would be better if assignments were submitted in draft, given a quick review then a final version submitted. Being a Finance Director, I can see that this would scarcely be affordable for OCA so I guess one has to live with the frustration;

• Tutor has raised the question of quality several times, in particular perceived lack of sharpness. I have indulged the point to a degree, mainly by post processing, but there is a degree to which one has to accept that different people see different things in images. Quality has never been a problem for my photography in the past, scoring well in TAOP and never raised as an issue with competition entries. I have changed nothing in my practices and processes so feel satisfied that this is perhaps a particular emphasis of tutor.

Achievements

• Undoubtedly the main achievement was a much greater understanding of context. Something clicked with me during this course and can see that photography can be about more than single images; they can tell a story and can be enhanced with text. It may seem basic but this is perhaps the key development of People and Place beyond TAOP;

• An understanding of this enabled me to present some more creative work, as tutor has said. This course did help to encourage a creative element in my photography, something I aimed to achieve when setting out on OCA;

• I have learnt techniques in respect of areas that I was inexperienced in, particularly portraiture.

What next

I wish to develop my photographic skills in a different way for a while: working online tutorials, entering competitions, and looking again at stock photography.

More important is a need to understand art. Notwithstanding that I now understand context more, I still find a lot of the work that is in the realm of art photography incomprehensible. To my mind, most of it is just not very good, and I do not see the message that the photographer is trying to convey. Consequently I have decided to study Understanding Visual Culture in the hope that this will provide a basis for greater empathy and understanding.

I have considered  Understanding Art: Western Art instead but the course requires drawing skills of which I have absolutely none. The final Level 1 photography course, Digital Photographic Practice, was viewed as not challenging enough by previous tutor. Received negative feedback on course from other South West OCA students on the day out in October. So in a way the decision is made.

If that course progresses OK, will turn to Landscape Photography, but that will be at least a year ahead.